


they sharpen into sabres and they stab you in the eye

by dirtblocks



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, also i wrote this super sleep deprived, dont worry he deserves it, dream fucking dies, fun fact my eyes literally cant focus rn, hence the Major Character Death tag, no beta we die like dream did in this fic, no hate to irl dream but his character is a good punching bag, the characters aside from boffy and tommy are only there for the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:09:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28651791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirtblocks/pseuds/dirtblocks
Summary: title from icicles by the scary jokes (the song I was listening to while finishing writing this!)Boffy messages Tommy and Tommy leaves the DreamSMP to come live with Boffy in RLCraft and finally heal.
Relationships: Boffy & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 229





	they sharpen into sabres and they stab you in the eye

**Author's Note:**

> OH BOY THIS FIC HAPPENED ON SLEEP DEPRIVED HOURS SO SORRY IF IT MAKES NO SENSE!

Boffy didn’t know when he let himself get nostalgic. He wasn’t sure when he started to let himself miss Tommy, wasn’t sure when his thoughts became consumed by the idea of messaging his once-friend and maybe even getting a response.   
  
He didn’t want to, he told himself. He was just being stupid.    
But in his heart he knew he was lonely, he knew that four years was too long without human contact.   
  
So he pulled out his dusty communicator in the dead of night, and began to wonder what to type. He knew Tommy would never apologize for the fight, far too proud and far too stubborn, but Boffy was stubborn too.    
Unlike Boffy, who was content to stay and linger, Tommy was somebody who took every chance he got and ran with them.   
  
For all Boffy knew, Tommy would have already forgotten him while he was staring at a cracked and dusty screen.   
He shook his head, and put his fingers to the keys.   
  
He had to do this, at least for his own sake. To get some closure, maybe.

Or maybe it would make things worse- but he needed to try.

>To TommyInnit:  _ Hey, I know it’s been a while and you probably hate me, but I need to tell you that I’m sorry for the fight we had, and that if you ever want to meet up, I’m still living in the RLCraft world we had. _   
  
He pressed send before he could let himself overthink, and collapsed onto his bed.   
He’d see if there was a response in the morning, he supposed.

  
  
  


Tommy woke from fitful sleep to a message on his communicator from a name he at first didn’t recognise. But the contents of the message seemed- Oh. Oh god.   
  
He blinked aggressively, and pinched his skin. Boffy couldn’t be messaging him- he wouldn’t apologize for something he’d never done wrong- this couldn’t be real-.   
The message never faded, and Tommy was awake.

Logsted was quiet as he typed a response, hands shaking.   
  
>To Boffy:  _ I’ll be there soon _

Then, he packed the few items he had into an ender chest, and chugged the invisibility potion Ranboo had given him for situations not quite like this, but close enough.   
  


He finally had somewhere to go that wasn’t here- and Boffy didn’t hate him after all these years.

  
  


The nether was far warmer than usual, he noticed as he ran. The crimson biomes seemed larger too, although they’d always been the most imposing nether biome. 

Still, Tommy was glad to be leaving, stumbling out into the community house with little time to spare on his potion.    
  
Then he froze.   
In his rush, he’d forgotten to leave a note.

“They wouldn’t care anyway.” He muttered, stepping through the portal into the main hub world as his potion finally wore off. 

  
  


Finding the portal to the RLCraft world was harder than he’d thought. He knew which district it was in, but it’d been four years since he’d last seen it, and the hub had grown busier and more crowded and for once he was glad that Boffy hated change, because he didn’t think he’d be able to find him if he’d gone somewhere unfamiliar. 

It was odd how quickly he found himself reattached to the concept of being friends with Boffy.   
He was the one who started the argument, he was the one who fucked up, and yet never once did it cross his mind to genuinely hate Boffy. He just… forgot him, as best he could, and moved on.   
  
Clearly, it was stupid, and had gotten him into an even bigger mess than he could’ve possibly prepared for, but part of him wondered if it was the worst option. Clearly Boffy still cared for him, and maybe if he hadn’t done this, it would’ve turned out worse.   
  
Clearly, this situation was idiotic, and Tommy needed to stop dwelling before he drove himself insane.

  
  


He was at the portal, at least.

  
  


\---

  
  


It was barely past midnight when Boffy’s communicator buzzed with a join notification, and the sound fell on deaf ears. Boffy was a heavy sleeper.

His base was also very much not near spawn, and also very much not near where Tommy had left him. He didn’t change often, but being in a hollow shell of a base made for two men when he was only one felt horrible, so he packed up and moved.

So, when Tommy stepped out into the horrible world to be immediately greeted by hordes of raging mobs, his first instinct was to travel to where his and Boffy’s old base was.   
  


A terrible mistake, really.

  
  


Every few minutes, Tommy would send a message, usually just repeating Boffy’s name over and over, waiting for his- was Boffy his friend?   
Could he truly consider Boffy his friend? What if Boffy hated him? Oh god, what if Boffy had lured him here to kill him and torment him for the rest of time because the lives system wasn’t in place here and-

Tommy collapsed onto the ground and screamed as loudly as he could.

Unfortunately, all he did was attract more mobs, so he had to pick himself up and continue the trek.

He very much regretted letting Boffy build the base so far from spawn.

  
  


At approximately five in the morning, Boffy sat up, and began his usual morning routine of blankly staring at the wall until his body finally caught up to the processing level of his brain.

And then, unlike his usual morning routine, he noticed his communicator sitting on the opposite side of the room- he had to have thrown it last night, then- and remembered why.

Oh god- shit. If Tommy saw the message he probably thought it was weird, and-   
Boffy rushed over to the communicator, and shoved it under his bed.   
  
That lasted for all of five minutes before curiosity got the best of him, and he pulled it back out, turning it back on with a sigh.   
“I’m such an idiot.” He muttered- before seeing the screen literally filled with messages from inside the world. All from Tommy. Mostly just saying his name and vague insults, but as he scrolled down, he could see more and more asking where he was- oh right.   
  
He’d moved the base from where Tommy knew where it was, and- Why was Tommy even here so soon? 

Boffy shook his head, and grabbed his adventuring gear. 

>Boffy: If you’re at the ruins of the old base still, stay there. I’ll come get you.

He then shoved open the door, and began to walk.

  
  


Tommy was shaken from his sleep by a buzz in his pocket, and he did a double take before realizing where he was. He’d fallen asleep in the ruins of a burnt building where his and Boffy’s base was, and knowing Boffy’s… tendencies, well, it was fair to assume it  _ was _ their old base.

He looked at the communicator, and smiled.

It almost felt like old times.

And then it didn’t, as he remembered what he’d done.   
  
Not only had he broken his exile to get here, he’d- he’d left no note. Everybody would assume he’d died, if anybody checked at all- oh god the only person to check would be Dream, and Dream would lie and use his absence to manipulate everybody and he wasn’t even sure why he should care anymore because nobody cared about him, nobody ever-

He was hyperventilating, he realized.   
He forced himself to take long slow breaths, for the little it helped, and formed a plan.   
At first, he wasn’t going to tell anybody on the smp where he was- or contact them at all, but eventually, he would message Ranboo, and maybe.. Somebody else. He wasn’t sure. 

For now, he would treat this as a well deserved break, and hope that he wouldn’t immediately ruin it again. He couldn’t afford to lose Boffy entirely, not again, not again-

He slapped himself.   
He needed to stop spiralling, but when he was alone in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do, it was hard. He needed to give himself something to do.

He got up, and punched a tree.   
Obviously, he knew it wouldn’t actually do anything here, but it felt nice to take his frustrations out on a physical object, and if he screamed- not out of pain, but out of rage- whenever he hit particularly hard, that was between him and the birds he startled. 

  
  


By midmorning, he felt slightly better, although incredibly hungry, and even more tired.

But then he heard a voice echoing through the trees, and-

“TOMMY? ARE YOU THERE?”    
Tommy nearly cried, for a reason he couldn’t place, upon hearing Boffy’s voice.   
It hadn’t changed much, and as Boffy stepped out of the trees, Tommy saw that Boffy himself hadn’t changed much either.

“...Tommy?”    
Tommy rushed forwa

rds, collapsing onto the taller boy.   
“I-I’m so fucking sorry Boffy. I’m so sorry for arguing with you and-”   
“Tommy, stop.” Boffy’s tone was as cold as ever, but Tommy flinched, and immediately Boffy noticed.   
“Oh god, what did they do to you out there?” He murmured, and Tommy just laughed bitterly.   
“I don’t even know anymore.- I- I’m glad you messaged me when you did, Boffy… I- I hate to say it, but I don’t think I would’ve lasted how I was going.”   
Boffy stilled at the words, then lifted Tommy up as gently as he could.   
  
Despite all Tommy’s growing, he’d never outgrown the giant that was Boffy. To be fair, Tommy was pretty sure Boffy could shapeshift or something, because no human could be naturally that large, but it was funny to know that despite everything, Boffy could still lift Tommy like he was nothing.   
  


“We’re going home.” He said, and then swung Tommy up into his arms, carrying him bridal style.   
“This is easier than a piggyback, since if you pass out you’re not going to fall.- And no offense, but you look like you’re about to pass out.”    
Tommy snickered. “I am about to pass out.”   
“Well let’s go then.”

  
  


The walk back was shorter than Tommy expected, but that was because Boffy moved with a confidence that was quite frankly terrifying, and also definitely knew the way around these lands far better than Tommy ever had, even when he traveled around them regularly. 

On the way, they didn’t talk about too much, aside from Boffy warning him when he was about to make large movements, or Tommy making casual jabs and comments.   
  
It felt oddly comfortable, despite the time they’d spent away from each other. 

Tommy caught himself thinking that it truly did feel like going home, and then despite the fact that it was stupid, and Boffy would probably judge him- who was he kidding, Boffy was definitely already judging him-, he found himself crying.   
  
Boffy immediately stopped walking, and looked down at the sobbing teen in his arms.   
“Tommy? What’s wrong?”   
  
Tommy looked back up at him with a bittersweet smile and tears still pouring from his eyes.

“I-I wish I’d never fucking left.” He managed to say between the tears, and Boffy nearly started crying too.   
“It’s okay, you’re here now. We’re okay, We’re gonna be okay.”

Boffy wasn’t sure it was true, because this- this wasn’t the same Tommy he knew, it wasn’t at all the same loud rambunctious idiot who walked directly into a lava dungeon, but he was going to try anyway.   
  
And he was going to find out who hurt Tommy, and he was going to burn them alive.

\---

When the two of them had gotten back to Boffy’s base, Boffy had insisted that he at least tend to Tommy’s wounds before he rested, in case there was anything serious.   
He’d also gotten out some clothes for Tommy to wear, since his old ones were dirty and torn- and quite frankly far beyond saving.   
  


Thankfully, none of Tommy’s wounds had been too bad, only two of them needed stitches, and after Boffy forced Tommy to take a bath in water infused with a healing potion, Tommy was dragged into Boffy’s room and told to sleep, or Boffy would knock him out.

In his heart, he knew Boffy was joking, but the tone was a little too cold- it was just how Boffy normally spoke, why was he being so sensitive- and how out of the corner of his eye, Boffy’s mask looked just like Dream’s- that set him off crying again.

Boffy didn’t know what to do- he’d never seen Tommy cry this much in the two years they’d been in the RLCraft world together, let alone all at once, but he tried his best, sitting next to Tommy on the bed and letting the shorter wordlessly sob into his cloak.

After a while, Tommy ran out of tears, and Boffy knew he had to bring this up now.   
“Tommy, is there anything I can do to make you feel safer?”

Tommy flinched like he’d just been slapped, and Boffy immediately felt like he’d done the wrong thing.   
“Wait- I’m sorry- Sorry if that upset you-”   
Tommy furiously shook his head.   
“No- No- it’s just that nobody’s ever… asked.”   
  


Boffy’s vision turned red for a moment, but he forced himself to calm.   
“Nobody’s ever- How long have you been dealing with this.”   
“...The bad ones only started recently.”   
“How long.”   
“...Two years.”

Tommy looked- Tommy looked guilty. The specific sort of guilt that Boffy knew all too well because he’d see it in the mirror sometimes.   
  
God, Boffy hated being so young but so- wise wasn’t the word, but there wasn’t really ever a word, so wise would have to do.   
And now he was seeing his pain amplified tenfold onto somebody he’d cared about, and at the end of the day he supposed their argument boiled down to that.   
  
He’d wanted Tommy to be safe, and at the end of the day Tommy had left and gotten hurt anyway.

Boffy shook his head to clear his thoughts, and then looked down at Tommy, who had turned to face away. He could feel him shaking, and he knew it wasn’t from the cold.   
  
“Tommy, I don’t know what happened to you out there, but what they’ve done isn’t alright. And as long as you want to stay in this world, I’m going to make sure you’re safe. Just like how- Remember when we first met, and I was super paranoid about you going near fire, so you avoided it until I felt alright again? Just like that.”   
“...But I- I shouldn’t feel like this. I should be able to cope.”   
“Whoever told you that needs to go shove a cactus up their ass.”

Tommy burst out laughing, and then sighed.   
“I… Your mask sort of reminds me of somebody who wasn’t great, and sometimes when you talk it sounds more angry than it is, so it reminds me of… a lot of people.”

Boffy nodded, and carefully took off his mask.   
“W-Wait, you don’t need to-”   
“It makes you uncomfortable. I’m alright without it, but it’s upsetting you.”   
“...Thank you.”   
  
Boffy nodded.   
“Now, get some rest. Please. You look like a corpse still.”   
  


Tommy nodded, and rolled off Boffy onto the mattress, watching as Boffy stood and left the room.   
“I’m going hunting, I’ll be back before you wake up.”

  
  


When Boffy was a good distance away from the house, he punched the nearest available surface as hard as he could.    
That surface was a small tree, and he watched with dull satisfaction as it tumbled to the ground, before vanishing into nothing.

The Tommy he’d found in the ruins of their old base wasn’t the same Tommy who’d left in a flurry of insults and rage, and that was obvious.   
What was also obvious was that it was going to take months, if not years, to find out what had happened, and he doubted he’d ever learn the entirety.

He wondered if the old Tommy would ever come back.

Probably not, not entirely.

\---

Turns out, it took about a year for Tommy to even consider opening up about what had happened, but when he did, it opened the floodgates.

  
  
The two of them were on the roof of a random structure they’d found, watching a forest burn, when Tommy spoke before he could think.   
“Tubbo would’ve loved this.” he’d said, before turning a very pale shade.   
“I won’t ask.” Boffy said placatingly, and Tommy shook his head.   
“You deserve to know what I was up to while I was gone.”

And so Tommy told Boffy of SMPEarth, of the Sleepy Bois, and of Tubbo.   
He stopped the story when he mentioned joining a new world after Earth, and sighed.   
  
The flames were embers now.

“Wow- You did a lot of stuff, huh.”

“Yeah.”   
Boffy sighed.   
  
“I’m sorry, by the way. I- I wanted you to stay here because I thought if you left I’d lose somebody else, but by fighting you on it I ended up pushing you away and just-”   
“A self fulfilling prophecy.” Tommy muttered, and Boffy nodded.   
“I fucking hate it, honestly. I was stupid.”   
“We were both stupid.”

Then, the two of them laughed, and climbed down from the roof, walking through the ashes of the forest feeling lighter than they both had in a while. 

  
  


Two years later, when Boffy woke in the dead of night to Tommy screaming, he learnt about the rest of Tommy’s time away from the RLCraft world.    
Tommy told him through sobs about L’manburg, about Pogtopia, about how his father had killed his brother and then left him too, all while supporting his other brother in hurting everybody else around them, and Tommy told him about Dream.

Boffy was going to kill Dream, he decided.

“...Honestly, I’ve- I’ve been worried about them. They could all barely go a month without blowing something up, and-”   
“It’s been three years.”   
“Yeah. I… I’d like to think at least some of them are better, but… The only person I could really trust when I left was Ranboo, and I decided I’d save him the trouble of knowing if he couldn’t tell anybody else.”   
  
Boffy nodded.   
“I mean, if you wanted to visit, I could go with you-”   
“They’d rip me to shreds, and I only have one life left there.”   
“...So you could just-”   
“Dream made it so that if you die in the server, you can’t leave. You’re fucking suck.”

“What.”   
“....Yeah.”   
  


Boffy made a choice, then.   
“Tommy, do you want to go back. If- If the dying thing wasn’t a problem, would you go back?”   
“..I think I would, I guess.”   
“Then we can go. I can go and make sure you don’t die, and you can make sure they’re okay.”   
“...They’ll probably hate me.”   
“So? They don’t seem like very nice people, who cares.”   
  
Tommy paused for a moment, considering Boffy’s words.   
“Sure.”

  
  


Two weeks later, they were ready to go.

\---

The hub world was as much of a mess as Tommy remembered, and he made sure to travel quickly, knowing Boffy hated the place.

“It’s unfortunately kind of far away from our world.” Tommy muttered, dragging Boffy through crowds of people meandering around with obviously precious little to do.   
  


Boffy just nodded, very glad for the fact that his mask no longer set Tommy off. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if he had to go through these crowds with his face exposed.

  
  


It took them a grand total of twenty minutes to find the portal to the DreamSMP, and when they did, Tommy paused.   
“...We can go back.” Boffy offered, and Tommy shook his head.   
“No! I- I’m just scared. But It’ll be fine.”

Tommy stepped in first, dragging Boffy with him, and braced himself for chaos.

  
  


Chaos that never came, as he stepped out onto a cobblestone platform over a crater.

Several craters, actually.

The entire spawn area was blown up, and he could see fighting happening in the distance.   
  
He could vaguely make out the silhouette of Technoblade and Philza in their antarctic empire garb, as well as three people in similar outfits that he couldn’t quite place- well. Now he looked harder, one of them was obviously Ranboo, but that didn’t make a lot of sense.

Then Tommy remembered that he was gone for three years, and a lot could change in three years.

“We need to get over there.” He muttered, and Boffy laughed.   
“Let’s go then.”

Suddenly, Tommy found himself being carried as Boffy leapt across the craters with a surprising amount of ease until they were near enough to the fighting to truly see what was going on.   
  
The two who Tommy couldn’t place were Niki and Fundy- who’s garb was undeniably different, because it carried the motif of Eret’s kingdom as well. He assumed perhaps the two kingdoms had an alliance- 

Then, after far, far too long, he realized who they were all fighting.   
  
Dream. They were fighting Dream.

And behind Dream was Tubbo, tied to a post- clearly there as some sick twisted show of power.   
  
  


Tommy wouldn’t have called himself an impulsive person, not after three years of finally getting a fucking break, but when he grabbed Boffy’s sword from his hands- enchanted with magic that most definitely should not have been able to get into the world- and rushed into the fight, aiming straight for Dream’s head, he definitely wouldn’t say it was a thought out action.

But Boffy moved with him, reacting to his lack of sword by simply using magic instead, and the two of them leapt into combat with practiced ease. They’d been fighting together for three years- and the two before Tommy had left-, and they’d be damned if they let themselves lose a battle.

  
  


It wasn’t much of a fight, really.   
Not when, upon seeing the two of them, Dream quite literally froze in place.

“You son of a bitch.” Tommy muttered, sword to Dream’s neck.

  
Dream laughed, although it was strained.   
“I should’ve known my brother couldn’t stay out of my business.” He’d said, and Boffy had tensed.   
“You- I should’ve fucking known. I’m here because Tommy’s my fucking friend, but knowing that it’s you- Well. Killing you is just a bit sweeter, isn’t it.”   
“...Dream’s your brother?!”   
“I didn’t know it was him! He vanished off the face of the earth when I was ten- he took our sister with him, and he left me to fucking die.”

Dream laughed.   
“I knew you weren’t going to die, but you weren’t useful to me anymore, so I disposed of you. Just the same as I did with our sister, once she was as useless as you.”

Tommy slid the sword into Dream’s throat before Boffy could even respond, and smiled when his corpse didn’t vanish into particles like a normal death.   
“I see why you wanted this thing.” Tommy handed the sword back to Boffy, then turned to face the antarctic empire fighters as Dream’s corpse crumpled onto the ground behind him.   
  
“Hi. It’s been a while.” He grinned, while Boffy quickly cut the ropes tying Tubbo to the pole.   
  
For a moment, there was silence, then Ranboo rushed forwards, pulling Tommy into a hug.   
“I- I thought you’d died. I thought you’d died or maybe that Dream had killed you and-”   
“Ranboo. It’s okay. I’m here now.”

Then he felt a hand on his shoulder.   
“Tommy-”   
“Tubbo.”

There was more ice in his tone than intended, but it didn’t feel wrong.

“I-”   
“No. Don’t you fucking dare say sorry when you never did anything to show it. You never visited despite the fact that I had a literal party and sent out invitations and- NONE OF YOU turned up! None of you!”   
“Tommy- We never got invitations to anything. As far as all of us knew, you didn’t want anything to do with us- Dream convinced everybody of that.” Tubbo said softly, and Tommy froze.   
“Oh.”   
  


Then, they heard a sickening squelch from behind them.   
Boffy had stomped on Dream’s head, heavy combat boots crushing his skull easily.   
“You aren’t even an excuse for a human being.” He growled, before turning back to them.   
  
“Tommy, is there anybody else you needed to visit? I might’ve forgotten that blood stains things.”   
“...Boffy you own like four of the same outfit.”   
“SO DO YOU!”   
“Shut up.” 

Tommy laughed, then. 

Until Philza walked over, and Tommy broke free of his friends hug to punch his once father figure square in the face.   
“You. You are a horrible excuse for a father, and your favoritism nearly killed me. I don’t know what’s happened in the three years I’ve been gone, but if Wilbur’s alive again somehow, I hope to god you’re being a better father to him than you were before.”

Phil didn’t even bother arguing, just stood there frozen for a while.

Then Techno came and placed a hand on his shoulder, and Phil sighed.   
“...You’re right. I’ve been a shit dad. I’m sorry Tommy.”

Tommy turned away.

  
“Is everything going to be alright here now Dream’s dead? I assume either George or Sapnap are the new admins, and they’ll hopefully be a lot better than Dream was.”   
“..Everything should be fine.”   
“Good.”

Tommy made eye contact with Boffy through his mask, and quickly looked at Tubbo and Ranboo.

Boffy understood the message, and after a moment, nodded.   
  
“Tubbo, Ranboo, do you two want to come live with Boffy and I?”

Ranboo’s response was an instant “If that’s okay?”, looking at Phil and Techno, while Tubbo simply stood there for a while, clearly shocked.

After Phil and Techno had convinced Ranboo it was okay to leave, Tubbo finally spoke up.   
“You aren’t going to hate me?”   
“Tubbo, you fucked up a lot. But you’re still- you’re still somebody I care about, and I know it was mostly just Dream manipulating you. We can go burn down some forests to cope or something if you come live with us, okay?”

Tubbo laughed.   
“Sure.”

  
  


Three weeks later, everybody was sitting on the roof of a random structure they’d found, watching a forest burn.

It felt like home.

  
It  _ was _ home.

**Author's Note:**

> please if you want me to write a funny oneshot of Tommy, Boffy, Tubbo, and Ranboo all living together I'll do it once im not super sleep deprived I care all of them so much.


End file.
